Pulse

Iron Man had been seen flying low over northeastern New Jersey for the past three hours. There were mostly cheers from the citizens below, but the unusual warm Jersey welcome was deaf on Tony's ears. He lost count on how many times he zigzagged and circled through Newark and the surrounding towns. Trying to find that boy from the busted up human-weapon trafficking ring had pretty much been hopeless two hours ago, but Tony persisted. He felt responsible. He was responsible. Maybe somehow the kid had made it out of that building on his own, but there was the other more likely option. One of the three scientists had made it out too; that sicko had to have taken the kid.

S.H.I.E.L.D. had called off their search after only thirty minutes in. Their main objective had been achieved in taking down the illegal facility, and now it moved on to finding the buyers. So until more intel presented itself where it deemed S.H.I.E.L.D. should once again intervene, local law enforcement was left with the John Doe missing teen case. But for Tony the main objective wasn't over. There was a victim still out there —a kid for Christ's sake. A kid Tony had unintentionally injured. This was personal.

Unfortunately, Tony's nighttime search was going nowhere. Even with the multiple serum samples provided by S.H.I.E.L.D., Tony couldn't find a lock on any of the unique energy outputs they in theory would create when introduced to human DNA. The lost cause of it was finally catching up with the hero. The kid could have been dragged on a ship, been driven off to another state...or even flat out killed. Tony's heart hung heavy. He didn't want to give up, but maybe it was time —at least for tonight anyway. He made the disheartening decision to finish his southward sweep into the city of Elizabeth, and if he couldn't find any trace of the kid he'd head back to Avenger's Tower. This type of aimless searching wasn't getting him anywhere. He could figure out other methods once he was back home. Fine tune the energy scans, anything.

"Sir, it's none of the searching signatures, but we have a power surge approximately 0.96 kilometers southeast," Jarvis alerted, locking Tony on to the location.

"I'm pretty sure I'm looking at it..." Tony's eyes widened at a burst of a blueish white light over a half mile away.

It originated from the ground and erupted outward and mostly upward at least 30 feet high. The bright light only remained for a second, then it was gone. The Iron Man suit was at full thrusters to the location. It looked like the search for the kid was ending even earlier, but Tony couldn't ignore a disruption like this. People could be hurt, and whatever it was that caused the power flash could happen again. Not to mention this was pretty damn close to Newark International Airport.

Tony hovered and scanned over the sight. There at least appeared to be some luck for him tonight, the location of the blast was a parking lot thankfully empty of people during the late hour. Just not so lucky for Ray's Truck Sales, as pretty much all the trucks in the lot were in varying degrees of being damaged. The epicenter of the blast was unmistakable, a ring of trucks that were completely destroyed and the damage to the vehicles was less and less moving outward.

"Second sweep is picking up a body," Jarvis spoke up. "Heartbeat detected, sir."

"Thadda' boy."

Tony carefully lowered to a stand near the blast center. All that could be seen at first glance were small pieces of rubble, but then it caught his eyes: a bare foot and leg sticking out from underneath. Tony quickly went to work, brushing away the debris; the while his mind whirling trying to understand what could have happened here. Had this person set off some kind of "gentle" bomb here that allowed them to survive it? The person was a he. Pale and dirty. A tangle of messy long dark brown hair...and wearing a hospital gown.

Tony's breath caught in his throat, and he popped up the mask of his helmet so he could see the person's face with his own eyes. It was the kid. Unconscious, but alive and breathing. The gown was pretty torn up, and the boy's body was peppered with a fair amount of bruises and cuts, both old and new. Tony had never been so relieved and heartbroken at the same time. The boy suddenly woke with a start before Tony could put the call in for a medical team. The kid's eyes went wide in panic, and he shot up into a sitting position and scrambled back a few feet.

"D-don't arrest me please." The kids voice was raspy and quiet from a throat long suffering of soreness. "I don't know how... I-I didn't mean to."

"Hey hey hey," Tony spoke calmly. He went ahead and stepped out of his armor so the kid wouldn't feel so threatened. "You obviously recognize me, so you know I'm one of the good guys. I help people in trouble. And I know you've been in trouble. I know some bad people have been hurting you." Tony carefully stepped up closer and knelt down to be more caringly eye-level. "I'm not here to arrest you, kid. I'm here to help you. Okay?"

The boy nodded. One of his hands shot up and rubbed around his dirty bare neck, and his scared eyes showed a bit of relief, but his anxious breathing still remained fast.

"Alright, good," Tony showed him a small smile. "Okay first up, you feel hurt anywhere?"

"Um, not really bad anywhere, no."

"Okay. Did anyone take you from the building when I came in with S.H.I.E.L.D.?"

"No. No, I-I ran."

"Alright, that's okay. And now remember you're not going to be in trouble. Nobody's hurt, and insured property damage isn't that big a deal. You made this happen somehow? The light? The ground and trucks all bang boom?"

The boy gave small rapid nods as his answer. Emergency sirens finally being heard in the distance made the kid's eyes fill with even more fear.

"Don't worry, kid," Tony tried to assure. "I'll get S.H.I.E.L.D. here, and they'll get you-"

"No!" The kid screamed through his hoarse voice. "I just found out I've been in hell for four months being poked and prodded. I've heard the stories. I know what S.H.I.E.L.D. does to people who they think are dangerous." The kid was sounding more sure and upset as he spoke. A fear-filled anger growing, and with it a glowing. White with just a twinge of blue just barely radiating off the middle of his chest and slowly spreading across it. The boy stood. "Nobody's gonna touch me! Nobody's gonna test on me again!" The glow crept down his arms. "Nobody's gonna lock me away! This isn't my fault!"

"Sir-" Jarvis tried to chime in from Tony's ear piece.

"Not the best time," Tony cut the AI off under his breath. "I'm hearing you, kid. Calm down, okay? Try to calm down."

"You can't call them! Nobody's hurting me again! Do you hear me?! I don't care if you're Iron Man! Nobody's-"

The trauma induced teenage freak out was getting bigger, the sirens were getting closer, and the glowing was beginning to get more intense. This was basically a recipe for disaster.

"Hey hey! Nobody's calling S.H.I.E.L.D. right now, okay?" Tony stood, but took a few steps back to give the kid space. "Now let's just calm down. 'Cause right about now I'm thinking if you don't, we're gonna have another 'bang boom' on our hands."

Confusion ripped through the scared and angry look on the boy's face, but it came right back when the kid looked down at himself and finally noticed the glow coming from his chest to his finger tips and beginning to creep down his torso and up his neck. "Oh no oh no oh no oh no....." the kid quietly rambled. He hugged his arms around himself and squeezed his eyes shut, trying to take deep slow breaths.

"Sir." Jarvis piped up more urgently. "The surge from before and the energy signature coming off of the young man now: it's a match for your repulsor tech."

All emotion left Tony's face in his shock. If his so-called genius brain could understand the basics of how those serums work, then...he did this to the kid. It was his accidental blast to the boy's chest that successfully finished off the serum's work. Tony's heart was heavy over this boy once again. Tony didn't flip the switch in motion that turned this poor kid's life on its head. He didn't start the trauma or the fear or anger; but Tony did finish it, regardless of it being an accident. Tony was to blame for what was happening now, and he had to fix it. He had to. Tony finally snapped out of it enough to hear the kid speaking again. The glow still on him, but now thankfully a little dimmer.

"I know I need help. But please, I'm begging you, don't give me to S.H.I.E.L.D. Would... would you be able to help me? Mr. Stark...er, Iron Man, sir, please."

The kid was dripping with desperation, his eyes pleading. Tony did the only thing he could do. He helped create this boy, so the boy was his responsibility now. Tony stepped back into his suit, his armor closing back up around him. He held his hand out for the boy as two police cars pulled up to the far end of the lot; a fire truck almost near on the other side. "So kid, you down for a tour of Avenger's tower?"